Anthony Pangilinan Wages War Against Child Sex Trafficking

As the head of Called to Rescue Philippines, media man and motivational speaker Anthony Pangilinan makes the right calls and builds bridges in an effort to fight back against human trafficking in the heart of one of its hotbeds.

If there's anything we've learned from the past three-or-so years and how they've forced us to reckon with the effects of social media, it's that the world is a sick place. Now that humans are more connected to each other than ever before, we're seeing all our ugly sides up close. Gathering together on the Internet has put us face-to-face with the worst of our nature, and as a result, we're confronted with all sorts of societal malfunctions, each now magnified to an unprecedented scale.

But few of the modern age's ills are as abhorrent as the phenomenon of child sex trafficking. There is plenty wrong with the world today, but this particular problem is of an ugliness that most of us would hesitate to confront. And especially because the Philippines is a global hotbed for child sex trafficking, it's a problem that demands our action, no matter how painful it is to face.

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It's a problem that Anthony Pangilinan knows intimately.

Pangilinan is known to most as a media personality—perhaps primarily as a former TV host, or as husband to actress Maricel Laxa, or as father to rising showbiz stars Donny and Hannah Pangilinan, or as brother to Senator Kiko Pangilinan—but also as a business consultant and motivational speaker. The guy has a lot going on, but of particular social significance is his leadership of the local arm of Called to Rescue, an international non-profit dedicated to rescuing children from sex trafficking and exploitation. He helped put up the Philippine chapter over nine years ago, and has since found himself in the fray of the war against child sex trafficking and sexual abuse. Today, he is the president of Called to Rescue Philippines, and a key communicator in efforts to apprehend traffickers, to rehabilitate victims, and to raise public awareness for the issue.

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Called to Rescue itself was originally founded in 1997 in the US, after Dr. Cyndi Romine witnessed an illicit transactionwith her own eyes while on vacation in the Philippines. (Romine recounts that she and her husband were aboard a boat when, from a distance to the shore, she saw a man hand money to a woman, who then allowed him to rape a child who had been hiding behind her.) Then in its early years, the organization worked with safehouses all over the world, including ones here in the Philippines, to help rescue and rehabilitate young victims of human trafficking. By '09, precisely because this country is a hotbed, CTR would establish a full-fledged chapter here, to augment its efforts.

"The Internet just blew the doors wide open. The problem now is that they’re mom-and-pop operations—literalna mom and pop."

At first, the invitation to the board of the local chapter fell on Anthony's sister, Angeli Pangilinan (whom many know as the wife of Gary Valenciano). However, Anthony says that because she was attending to a lot of different things at the time, she asked him to represent her instead. Dutifully, he agreed.

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By then, Anthony Pangilinan had already cut his teeth as a media man. "I became fascinated with combining platforms: media platforms, channels of distribution," he says. After starting fresh out of college as a the co-host of a morning show with Korina Sanchez, Pangilinan branched out wide: "Seminars, events, counseling, coaching, television, radio, wrote some books."

It was this propensity for connecting and communicating that Pangilinan applied towards his work with Called to Rescue. "I saw that one of the biggest issues of trafficking was disconnection. Families disconnected, or segments of society disconnected," he says. "The police not connected with DSWD, not connected with the corporate world, the NBI not connected with the PNP." He realized immediately that he could galvanize action by building the right bridges and making the right calls. "I think our biggest contribution is individual empowerment and activating a network of supporters."

And it's in this capacity—that of communicator, connector, and overseer—that Pangilinan leads Called to Rescue in its battle against child sex trafficking here in the Philippines, which over the years, has metastasized with the advent of social media.

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Before smartphones and instant messaging came along, "mas contained siya," says Pangilinan. "People didn’t have as many ideas eh. Big syndicates were involved.—there weren’t too many small-time operators. It was those who had invested money and resources that were doing the trafficking." He pauses and sighs. "But now, anybody can."

And in this age of you-can-do-it-too human trafficking and exploitation, Pangilinan has encountered some pretty grisly things. "The Internet just blew the doors wide open. The problem now is that they’re mom-and-pop operations—literal na mom and pop. A family decides, 'Wait, pwede nating perahan ‘yung mga anak natin.' Then they become the neighorhood pimp online."

PHOTO: Joseph Pascual

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Of course, while the problem still looms large, Pangilinan has seen some victories. He recalls, most recently, tracking down the financial arm of an online prostitution ring to Mindanao, resulting in a successful bust. He recalls the now-defunct era of "open parties," which he says were "youth gatherings where trafficking was starting, and where sex was being sold."

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He recalls a point when they realized that kids were exploiting other kids—"either they learned it on their own, that they can sell their own friends, or they were recruited by syndicates and then became the influencers." He also recalls busting a teacher who had been molesting students while the principal turned a blind eye. In many of these instances, he says Called to Rescue worked in coordination with local government, police, and the social welfare department to render apprehensions and interventions.

But some of the lowest lows that Pangilinan recounts are in the rehabilitation phase. He remembers the terror of meeting victims as young as one and three years old, already recovering from sexual trafficking. He remembers meeting a girl who didn't know her own name—only her designated number, as if she were an SKU.

He also remembers, mournfully, a 13-year-old girl who had been rescued, only to take her own life after six months of rehab. "My team, we wept. For me, that was the worst. We were all stunned. That traumatized the rest of the kids in the facility."

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"One of the biggest issues of trafficking was disconnection. Families disconnected, or segments of society disconnected."

Through it all, Pangilinan takes heart in the organization's successful rescues, but also in its prevention efforts. Called to Rescue facilitates barangay tours and school tours—sometimes, thanks to Pangilinan, with celebrities in tow. "We tell the kids that you are not for sale, you are a person of value," he says. "I think it starts there eh. Once a person knows that he or she valuable, then he or she will protest. And nine out of ten perpetrators will stop if the kid says no. They don’t expect the kid to say no. Not in this country."

Teaching and imparting value to these kids, Pangilinan says, is what makes the job worth it. "When you go out of your way and show people they are of value, grabe. Ako, fulfilled ako doon." But it's also on these trips that he is often reminded of the depth of the problem. "It’s very fulfilling, but then you also realize how big the challenge is. You can see they’re holding on to your every word. A lot of them, they haven’t really been valued very much."

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For his part, Pangilinan aims to keep at these efforts. He speaks about them as you would expect a motivational speaker to: With a hefty serving of success-oriented axioms and business-related generalities. It gives you a vague sense that even this, one of the world's ugliest and most evil problems, can't bog him down. He'll keep picking up the phone and calling attention to the issue that people don't want to see; he'll keep talking about the issue that people don't want to talk about; in hopes that if he doesn't stop, we can get closer to stamping it out.

PHOTO: Joseph Pascual

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If you encounter content that involves or fosters the commercial sexual exploitation of children, report to Called to Rescue Philippines here, or contact them via their non-emergency hotline, 0917 541 0287.